Upbeat. Positive. Star Wars-Centric.

Main menu

Tag Archives: on the wings of keeradaks

And so we’ve reached the finale of this fantastic storyarc! Love that it’s an exciting awesome episode, sad that it’s the last of ’em. Hopefully my blogging skills are more astute than they were last time around. Either way, it’s time to dive deep into the episode called Unfinished Business!NOTE: Contains spoilers from the Clone Wars Microseries, Rebels episode Out Of Darkness, TCW episodes Counterattack, Orders, The Bad Batch, A Distant Echo, On The Wings Of Keeradaks, and Unfinished Business (Storyreels)

So if you thought our heroes could get a break after all the insanity regarding Echo’s rescue… you were wrong. But obviously by the episode’s title you could probably tell that we weren’t just going to join the Bad Batch for a sandwich break (though come to think of it, I really want to see that episode now XD ). They’re still fightin’ Trench on Anaxes (also I recently figured out that this is the fyrnock-ridden base we see in Out Of Darkness; too bad they couldn’t connect with some of the critters to help them fight the battle! But perhaps the fyrnocks are why the base was abandoned in the first place), so no breaks for Jedi or clones right now. Master Windu has proposed a drop into the Sep’s Anaxes assembly complex, sounds easy enough, but it’s kinda crazy fortified so yeah maybe not that easy. But it happens that Echo has an idea. Omygoodness… I got all feely seeing Echo again… I rewatched a couple of the Citadel episodes this past week and relived his last normal mission and lost it when Fives had to move on without his friend… and then again when I realized Fives and Echo wouldn’t see each other again… 😥 😥 Sorry, boy this became a mess of emotions real fast! But anywayyyy despite Echo’s still recovering, he isn’t about to back down from helping a brotha out. He and his bros in the Clone Force 99 got this. I understand that, in unmade episodes later on, Echo became one of Bad Batchers, which of course makes perfect sense. Can’t help but notice he’s sportin’ a set of dark armor similar to that of the 99s’. So in some ways, he’s already one of them before even officially joining them. Please excuse my flawed logic. But yeah you go Echo! Steal dat Seppie algorithm and win this for the Republic with your epic tech skillz! Rex to Tech: “Don’t worry, Echo’s got a plan” “That makes me feel sooo much better…” XD C’mon Tech have faith in your fellow bro! Might he be a little jelly he can’t hook up into computers like Echo? Haha I know I would! What I would give to just write blogs in my brain instead of typing for hours! And onward our heroes go, with the Bad Batch gang leading the way!
And seriously these guys drop the best lines without even meaning to… “Pleaaaase tell me we’re gonna blow something up!” XD XD If it were up to me, I’d say “Yes you blow up all the things, Wrecker!”, but that’s on account of the fact I’m not general material and I love him to pieces. Again, Crosshair slept through most of it XD Echo then links in and masks their ship’s signal the boss way he do so the bad guys won’t take notice. And it works — battle droids can’t tell it from any other in their fleet. And our team lands without a hitch.
Meanwhile, the battle on Anaxes is already underway, with the usual droids shooting and gunships and Y-wings flying. With Mace and Obi-Wan leading the troops, they make quite the entrance to the assembly complex. Especially as Mace does something wonderfully unexpected… he bargains with the swarms of droids. He’s giving them the chance to peacefully surrender so they can be reprogrammed for the Republic. This coming from the guy who tore apart super battle droids with his bare hands? One of the battle droids has no clue what to make of this and gives this confused shrug to his companion, and Obi-Wan’s like “dude really?”. But you gotta admit Master Windu is awesome at giving speeches! Unfortunately, battle droids don’t give much thought to the concept of “peace” and “nonviolence”… the fact that the battle droids even ceased fire for that moment just to listen to him is astounding! And so the blasters go blasting once more. Well, you can’t blame a Jedi for trying… destroying droids probably gets old after doing it just about every day for nearly three years. But yeah after that the clones rejoin the generals and bring their own blasters. It seems they’ve got this win in the bag, but Admiral Trench has a sneaky little plan of his own… DUN DUN DUN.
It’s hardly a challenge for Anakin, Rex, Echo, and the Bad Batch to make their way into Trench’s ship. And it’s NBD for Echo to link into their systems. Though as Tech finds out, it may be a bit of a problem for the guys at the complex ’cause Trench just sicced all his droids on ’em. Or is it? Actually, it’s all part of Echo’s genius plan. He told Trench to send all the droids there… and once they’re there, he’ll shut them all down. Boom shake the room! That earns a pat on the shoulder from Tech and a smile from Rex 😀 Though admittedly Mace and Obi-Wan aren’t quite looking forward to all the new droids joining the party even so. ‘Cause just when it seems they’d decimated them all… suddenly there are literally zillions of them. “Does this meet your expectations?” “This… exceeds my expectations.” Hehe. And then boom! Echo fries ’em all! Love how one droid cries out “WHYYYYYYYYYY” as he gets shut down XD Yeah the Admiral wasn’t too happy… but he knows that the command came from his ship so that likely means trouble for the good guys.
It seems to be a pretty clear victory on the Anaxes front, but Echo soon finds that there miiiiiight be a bomb there… like, a really big could-cream-the-whole-planet bomb. Echo sends out a message to Master Windu while Anakin decides to have a little chat with the spider-guy. Indeed Mace finds a bomb in the complex’s fusion reactor, and the panel to shut it off is sorta kinda rayshielded. But again, another area of Echo’s expertise. Echo loads up each number to the passcode while Mace uses the Force to punch it in. The process is going great right up until one of the battle droids finally finds where Echo’s signal is coming from and decided to fry him. NUUUUU!! And then on come the super battle droids and our heroes are forced to make a run for it, carrying Echo’s unconscious form. Admiral Trench is feeling pretty good about his chances… and then he opened the door and there was Anakin. General Skywalker cuts up all his clankers real fast, and not even Trench’s arm-gun can bring him down. Yeah he’s not interested in any talking beyond what the final number to the passcode is. And Trench isn’t particularly interested in giving him it. Trench is all “pff you can’t do nothin’ to me you’re a Jedi and your nobility is a weakness” and to that Anakin sliced his robotic arms off. Yikes don’t mess with the General peeps. After that the Admiral was a bit more willing and spilled it, allowing for Mace to finally turn off that bomb. But not missing out on a chance to get even, Trench hits Anakin with his prod-staff and then Anakin hits Trench with his lightsaber. Ohh yes. You really really really don’t mess with the General. Before leaving the spider-Seppie with a fond farewell, Anakin happens to find a detonator… for the whole ship. Why would they even have that detonator?! Regardless, Anakin knows Wrecker will love it. Meanwhile, Wrecker is in his element in “wrecking ball mode”, smashing battle droids with nothin’ but brute force. Hunter caps it off well with “Honestly, I feel bad for those droids…” XD And Crosshair does a fantastic job aiming a refracting detonator at a battle droid. The droid’s all “sticky!” and then… well, you know what happened next XD As our troopers meet up with Anakin again, Crosshair hangs behind to pepper the walls with more refracting detonators. OK I’m not saying these guys’ll show up in Rebels or anything but I think Sabine would have a lot of fun with them 😀 Crosshair’s so good Wrecker can only hang his head in shame XD But he cheers up pretty fast because as soon as our team flies off, Anakin shows him the detonator! Big guy can’t help but shed some tears and remark “this… is the greatest day of my life!” just before he hits the button and the entire ship explodes! VICTORYYYYY
And back on Anaxes, we’re actually getting a legit medal ceremony! Mace gives the speech and Anakin and Obi-Wan gives the medals and all the clones cheer and clap and celebrate these brave not-so-clonelike clones! Even the astromechs are dancing with glee! SO MUCH YAY!! It’s always been said that differences make us stronger, well, that is perhaps even more so the case for these incredible troopers 🙂
AHHH I’M SO HAPPYYY!! AND HONESTLY PRETTY GLAD I’M DONE WITH THE BLOG BECAUSE IT SHOULDN’TVE TAKEN THIS LONG BUT THE VIDEO HAD PROBLEMS LOADING! AND I FORGOT TO TURN THE CAPS LOCK OFF AGAIN BUT I’M IN A HAPPY CAPS LOCK MOOD! UNTIL NEXT WEEK…

All right friends it’s time for another exciting commentary on the Bad Batch storyreels! Hold on tight ’cause we’re about to take a ride On The Wings Of Keeradaks! And yes I just did that whole meshing-the-episode-name-with-my-opening-line thing again even after I said I wouldn’t do it again. But you gotta admit that was a pretty good one, right? No? OK then…NOTE: Contains spoilers from the Clone Wars microseries, TCW episodes Rookies, Arc Troopers, The Bad Batch, A Distant Echo, and On The Wings Of Keeradaks (storyreels)

So the good news is, Rex, Anakin, and the Bad Batch found Echo. Not in the greatest shape, but still alive. The bad news is they’re surrounded at all ends by a gaggle of Wat Tambor’s Swiss Army battle droids and Echo’s hooked up to quite a few gadgets and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon unless Tech and Rex can get him out of there. But you know the Bad Batch… pummeling battle droids is rather a hobby for them. A new bunch of droids attempts to enter through another door, but they don’t do so well ’cause that’s when Wrecker rips the lead clanker’s head off. And with that, Hunter and Crosshair start welding the door shut. Despite all that excellent droid-pwning, they still can’t move until Echo is freed, and Tech’s still trying to crack that code. Knowing that out heroes have nowhere to go, Tambor finds this a wonderful opportunity to bring in his ORGANIC DECIMATOR, which automatically sounds terrifying, before giving General Skywalker a call. Tambor used the Techo Union’s so-called neutrality as an excuse, claiming also that Echo was their purchased-from-the-Seps property as their own personal lab [womp]rat. Yeahhh Anakin does not agree too much. But an evil-scientist-villain-type such as himself knows how to make people listen, see the ORGANIC DECIMATOR (it’s so bad I can’t not refer to it in all caps). Anakin definitely don’t agree when the droids bring in an innocent Poletec to showcase the Decimator’s abilities, but you know Tambor, he only cares about his tech and his cash. I don’t think anyone out there didn’t cringe when he vaporized that poor guy. We always talk about the giant impressive war weapons in SW, you know, the Death Star, AT-ATs, the Malevolence, stuff like that. But somehow this small probe-looking device is in some ways more terrifying. Just the fact that it can single out organics, as in human (and humanoid) beings and all other living things, and literally disintegrate them is flat-out horrifying. *Sigh* these guys probably have the brains to cure cancer and all they do is sit around and find new ways to kill people. Do we even need to bring up the Nelvaan-mutating in the Clone Wars microseries? Ugh. I almost don’t blame Anakin for choking that one guy later on. And now I’ve gone and let my mind wander off again. So yeah this is bad… with a bazillion new battle droids on their way, a device that can fry anyone in its path, and Echo still stuck, they’re running out of time that they desperately need. And did I mention that the Decimator has a laser and can carve its way through the door? AW DANGGG. But somehow Tech pulls off a miracle and he finally sets Echo free of his tubes and wires. Now alert and coherent again, Echo quips on having a bit of a headache. Rex and Echo are palling around again! Yes all is right in the world once more! OK sorta… they’re still on the run from Wat Tambor and his crazy killing machines. However, Echo happens to know about an exhaust vent that the other guys didn’t know about and is able to pop it open with his new computer-controlling skills. Then Wrecker works his magic and tosses the bros to their upward exit, all except for Anakin, who can manage the jump on his own. But then Wrecker decides to hang around downstairs a bit and leave a few gifts (read: thermal detonators) JUST AS THE ORGANIC DECIMATOR COMES THROUGH THE DOOR!! Anakin uses the Force to bring the bro into the vent, and I gotta tell ya that was one of the most nail-biting moments ever, period. I was so afraid that Wrecker would join the ranks of clones like Hevy and 99 and would end up dying a hero. Dude I love these Bad Batch guys so much I don’t think my heart could’ve taken it if any of them died that fast. But Anakin got him to safety and the vent shut just in time and I could not be more grateful. Yeahhh Tambor was not happy when he found they’d somehow vamoosed… he was even less happy when he found all of Wrecker’s “gifts”. “Orders, sir?” *SHOVE* XD Yeah I’ve never heard him more emotional than when he walked through the carnage going “MY MACHINES! MY BEAUTIFUL MACHINES!” aw poor guy… I almost feel bad for him, but he made all those said machines that kept Echo prisoner and killed a guy sooo… yeah not really.
As our heroes were making their way through the ventilation system, they learned from Echo that he’s been able to gain knowledge of basically everything in the building since he’s been stuck here. He also knows of a way to a landing pad that would hopefully have ship on it… problem is, the only way over there is on a long, skinny pipe that really wasn’t intended for people to walk on that also happens to be towering some billion feet of the ground. Wrecker’s definitely gonna have a “problem with gravity” now… though his show of honesty and humanity with the line “I think I’m gonna be sick…” got a chuckle out of me XD I apologize if I sound like a terrible person because of that. But then there’s a new problem — droids coming at them from the right! And before they can try going back, there’s droids coming at them from the left! Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Crosshair slips off and Wrecker has to grab him, which basically leaves them both hanging upside down and completely useless in this situation. Tech and Anakin knock off a few of the droids, but it won’t work for long. Tech then has a moment of genius and calls back a recording of the keeradaks’ distress call (while I know he recorded it from the mission, I could see him carrying around a Skako Minor wildlife field guide with him XD ), and shortly thereafter arrive the creatures, like Gandalf calling the eagles! They all make some precarious, but magnificent jumps onto their flying steeds and it looks like they’re in the clear. But what they didn’t call for was the fact that these Swiss Army droids can sprout wings and fly. These clankers have everything… and I’m sure the kitchen sink! Thankfully, flying battle droids still blow up like normal battle droids, and our heroes make it outta that soup quickly. Echo is definitely lovin’ getting back to his old job!
General Skywalker and the clones arrive back in the Poletec’s neck of the woods, letting them know that there’s still trouble coming their way, and that trouble is named “Wat Tambor”. The Poletecan leader’s not too happy that they’ve led the war to his hometown, but he definitely listens when Rex and Tech show him what the Seps did to Echo. The war’s not fun and it’s understandable why some don’t want to get involved, but sometimes you just gotta fight for what’s right. And that’s exactly what these guys decide to do. Good thing, since the Technos are bringin’ the heat… and quite a number of droids. But I’d say that our heroes, along with the Poletecs, are completely capable of bringin’ their own kinda heat 🙂 Rockslides, daggers flying, Hunter knifing them to pieces… Wrecker actually grabs a droid and uses it to bash the others! And the Poletecs don’t need fancy gadgets to kick a supreme amount of tail 🙂 It’s not always easy, especially when they bring out some bigger clankers (and I do mean big), but the two crews make quick work of the Techies’ team and send ’em running! (OK sorry for cutting all that action short but my blogging skills are an epic fail right now for whatever reason) But woot! Everyone’s celebrating! All except, of course, Tambor, who’s not thrilled over losing his test subject, but let’s be honest he’s not done here… not for a minute. And it’s definitely worth celebrating seeing Echo back where he belongs — free and amongst his awesome brothers once more! YAYYYYY 😀
So that was fun. Forgive the scatteredness of this one… sometimes SW is so awesome it’s hard to find all the words to describe it! And sometimes I just have an off day in my writing. Either way, hope you got something out of this mess! Next week we’ll finish up with the epic finale!